Part 24: 06/13/09: Arqa The Third Land (Part Three)
Want To Be Close (Reincarnation) / Time
Yamagishi will be living in the dorm with us. And starting tonight, she'll be providing us with support during battle. So, now I can rejoin the front line.
Great. You're reliable.
Yes, you can depend on me. Even though I'm a bit out of practice, I will soon return to my prior form.Seems like we have Mitsuru as a playable character as of today. I am super okay with that.
We're not even remotely close to running out of time, but that doesn't matter. Best way to deal with it now is to just focus on Chihiro's link for a while, I think.
Joy
All of the books on this shelf are only 100 yen each, so I can afford them with my allowance...> Chihiro is looking at the books on the shelf.
Shall we get going? I don't see anything that interests me... ...Hm?
O-Oh my... This is...! I've been dying to read this!!
I would never have expected this to be here... Maybe the shop owner made a mistake... ...They have all three volumes. This is amazing...
Wh-What should I do...? Is it good? Of course! All three volumes are great!
The characters look so real! ...Like they really exist!
But, I'll get them no matter what! By next month... wait... by the time I graduate! I-I gotta hide them where no one will see them...For over a year, no less. The perfect plan!
Please, don't get bought by someone else...
But, I also don't want to be a burden to my mother...
Kogals are high-school girls that basically dress like uniformed high-school girls... except with a few minor tweaks. Looking at this person, it sure doesn't apply. But if it does and this is just a timing quirk (no), it gives us a very alternative indicator of what is actually going on here. And it's a hell of a lot more creepy than you would think...
Nervous Man: S-Sorry! Forgive me! I'll do anything you want! Anything!!
Kogal: I'm going to break Up with you if you don't buy me that bag I was talking about before.
Until recently... What do you mean? ...Oh, don't worry. I was just talking to myself.
But... I sort of understand how he feels... That man... He doesn't have any self-confidence, so he tries to compensate with his money...Uh, no. If her nametag was correct and she is a school girl, then what we just caught a glimpse of was compensated dating. A creepy practice in which women (who could be adults but are more often in high-school) date older men for money, material goods and sometimes sex. It is basically child prostitution, but it's defended and considered a distinct practice because it's not always sex.
It's really fucking gross, yes.
And the entire reason I know it exists is because it was relevant in Persona 2. Thanks, Lisa!
> Chihiro seems to be thinking about you.
> Your relationship is stronger now!
...Shall we go? If I stay here, I know I'll want to go back to the bookstore and look at that illustration collection again...
> Chihiro ran away.
> It's getting dark, so you decide to go back to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
Now that Fuuka is formally a member of the team, Liz gives us a call to let us know we can ascend higher in Tartarus. Also she has new requests.
...just tell me if you want to go to Tartarus.Really, it doesn't affect overly much that we need to talk to Fuuka and not Mitsuru for Tartarus and checking whether everyone else is Tired/Sick or not now.
Well, there are some things in life you don't want to know about... This is one of them.
They said I could move in on Sunday, but I decided to come a little earlier. I wanted to begin helping you all as soon as possible... But I didn't even have time to pack, so I don't have anything with me.
I'm glad she wants to be part of the team. I'm looking forward to the next mission.
...You already knew that!
At first, people were saying that she was absent because she was being bullied... But. then they started saying she was really sick. Strange, huh? She seems pretty healthy to me.No, it's not strange at all. You were right there both times we learned that she was absent because she was missing because she was trapped in Tartarus.
God damn it, Yukari. Junpei is supposed to be The Dumb One.
Well, let's have a nice surprise. Guess it's not once a month after all!
Today's subject is a man in his 30s. with sunglasses and long hair that reaches to his back.
...Next is news. Pain, pain, go away!
So, our guest this time is one of the best Persona characters ever and also the oldest playable character in the series period. Baofu clocks in at the Absolutely Ancient age of 32 during the events of Persona 2. Like Lisa, he's not actually Japanese but rather Taiwanese. He's such a badass, he fights by flicking things like coins as his weapons. When he's not being a cool dude, he works as a rumormonger which helps influence the way events shape out in Sumaru City. Sadly this is basically all he does in Innocent Sin, so he's a fairly minor (but very important) NPC there. Fortunately, he gets upgraded to a playable character in Eternal Punishment. He joins claiming to be interested in finding out the truth behind the JOKER curse, but is really interested in doing an assassination on the boss of the Taiwanese Mafia. Yes, really.
Baofu's Primary Arcana is The Hanged Man, but he's very noteworthy in that his Secondary Arcana techically includes The Tower as he has the best affinity towards it out of everyone. His affinity is still only Good, but no one else has that or better. Oh and his default Persona is Odysseus. Yes, the main character of Homer's Odyssey who was also in the Iliad.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
Y'know, I just realised I've completely ignored this the entire time.
It just costs 200 Yen a pop and doesn't take up any time. It's the only place to get Jack Frost Dolls, so I take a few minutes to spend the ~4000 yen it takes to luck out and get enough for something later.
Because, well, it IS a crane game. You win far less often than you lose.
The Poem For Everyone's Soul
We've got a decent chunk of time before Liz's next deadline for her requests. Doesn't mean we'll necessarily take 'em slow though.
Especially since some of them are very low-effort and can be done as soon as we get a chance during the day.
Some also require a bit more effort than before, though. This seems like a simple get the item thing, but we need to figure out what it's meant to be first. Fortunately, that's easy enough to do here. It's an anatomy model of some kind, so now we just need to find one...
Which we can't do right now. But there are some new things available in Tartarus, so let's go!
The Voice Someone Calls
I've also decided that I'll allow you to select the members of your battle party. I realize that this is a big responsibility, but I believe you can handle it.I'm sure
Well, this is our party composition for the next stretch of Tartarus. Junpei gets to warm the bench, which is probably sensible for the time being.
Oh, and I stuck Mitsuru in the High-Cut Armor so she had actual defense and also to try and trigger a mini-event I forgot existed.
tartarus_0d02
Fuuka starts us off by telling us where the next boss fight is, I see.
...Speaking of seeing, I can't help but notice that this looks suspiciously like Arqa. Not just a text glitch this time. It's probably just a minor stretch I guess.
We'll skip on up to the 42nd floor for the time being. While the previous floor does give us the new Shadows, just gonna confirm that we're not actually anywhere near the 3rd block yet...
This block is much bigger than it seems. Yay...
Also, Fuuka in FES and Portable has this additional option to change the Tartarus background music. This is quite nice, its options are limited but they are all some very nice Persona 1 and 2 remixes at least.
It has never appeared in any other game since. Not in 4 (which was fair I guess), not in Golden (same), not in 5... which was arguably the worst decision. At least the Tartarus music DOES change.
Oh well, we'll stick with the default for the time being. While we give Fuuka chance to find where the boss really is (I actually did remember it being 50
), we might as well do, uh... Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out
New Shadows! Sky Balance is pretty simple, really. It's a reversed Heat Balance, except it reflects its own elements rather than merely nullify them. It uses the spells you'd expect. Very simple, dies very quickly.
These guys are a bit... maybe more dangerous? I guess? If they get to do something, at least. They have low HP, no resistances, but Mudo can be an instant game over and if they get two turns (somehow) Mind Charge Agilao could be really dangerous.
Which, uh, is never going to happen even if they DO get the first strike.
Bronze Dice are... they exist, at least. Their skills are kind of interesting, but very Phys heavy.
Kill Rush is the final light tier Strike attack. It hits one thing 1-2 times and each hit has a base 110 Power.
Liz wants us to get 5 of a thing that they'll drop. Since they usually appear as pairs, or a trio, this shouldn't take too long.
Adamant Beetles are a tedious waste of your time and SP. They always come alone, they have a fuckton of HP and... that's it. They could Power Charge a Kill Rush, sure, but uhh... even with their absurd HP, you can just chain AOAs so they never get a turn. Not even remotely worth it, though. I don't go out of my way to avoid most Shadows, but these are definitely a thing I would just skip wholesale.
Ohey, this guy's just hanging out now. He's lost his friend and got a new one.
We can see his full moveset now, at least. Provoke is never going to come up, but Counter might the very, VERY first time you fight them I guess?
His friend there is more dangerous for sure, though. Marin Karin and Pulinpa can be an awkward combo to deal with. Dia makes them potentially tedious. Holy Arrow is by far the most dangerous Pierce attack right now; it has a base 60 Power which doesn't sound like a lot. What makes it dangerous is that it has a baked in Marin Karin effect. Same 25% base chance and everything.
We have very easy access to this ourselves with Archangel. I might want to keep hold of that for some time later. It could be useful.
Haughty Maya are a Maya. He has a simple focus for one element, but... is really bad at it. Just Zio? Not even Zionga? How disappointing. They usually come in groups of 4 which makes them give semi-decentish EXP, I guess.
After The Battle
Shuffle Time has changed a bit, now too. There's an additional way that it can adjust things in the shell game aspect; cards will sometimes fly up off the screen at random and drop back in one-by-one from left to right. It might catch you off-guard all of once though. The order they go up is the same order they come back down.
As you might expect, the rewards we can get have gone up a step for the second half of Arqa. We can get up to rank 3 stuff now, which is mostly only useful now for healing and definitely EXP. Sword cards are super-outdated - they can give us weapons as useful and recent as Akihiko's default glove at best! - and Coins give ~2700-3200 yen.
Or we could get a 1.6x EXP multiplier. Hmm.
Just from the sheer number of random trash that we can fight now, everyone (except Mitsuru and, to a lesser extent, Akihiko) levels up pretty nicely and often. This lets us snag Media and gives Yukari Charmdi relatively quickly.
She won't get another spell for a while, though. Figures.
Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out
So, if the Steel Gigas is just a random shmuck now, what's our red Shadow?
Lustful Snakes are... not at all a threat. Like, Steel Gigas had durability and could maybe hurt someone.
Lustful Snake has very slightly high HP for the area, barely, and remarkably low Endurance. We can tear through these guys very fast, which is probably a good thing. Hama is their most dangerous thing for sure.
Plus they give around triple the normal EXP for the area, as you would expect for something that's a much higher level than everything else. This is its base value right now, even!
tartarus_0d02
Whew, after fighting through all of that Fuuka managed to find the boss fight after all. It's a little close than expected, but that's all.
We do manage to find a new one-handed sword in the interim.
And by "new" I mean it's the one that Mitsuru started with. This one is objectively better at least.
The default one has no additional effect, but the ones we can find do. Luck isn't great, but it'll be useful for if she ever finds something worth casting Marin Karin on.
And that's basically it for a while, really. The new Shadows are pretty much just a giant block of "meh" and that's it. Everything else is random chance that you have a slim chance at every floor.
But that's all we get, so whatever. 3 Shadows on the 47th floor, so this is an intermediary spot. This is a rather simple, obvious pattern really.
The Poem For Everyone's Soul
Take the opportunity to hand in a few requests while we've got a reasonable chance.
The Shadows you defeated to obtain them had an affinity for the Fortune Arcana. It's unfortunate that Persona must assume such a ridiculous form. Please accept your reward.
This is thoroughly, thoroughly eh. It just reduces the chance of getting critted.
It also sells for somewhere in the region of 40,000 yen.
One of these is significantly more worthwhile, yes.
Oh right, she also wanted three of these. That's why I spent so much on it before.
I have a great fondness for Jack Frost. May I... touch it? Oh my... this soft texture... ...I had been thinking about making a request related to Jack Frost...
I'm glad I decided on this request instead. This doll is too adorable... Please accept your reward.
Umugi Water are just a decent single-target healing item here.
They are, in fact, different in Portable where they're a semi-acceptable muli-target healing item instead.
Since we're here, and we're higher than level 15 now, we'll finally make an Oberon (in this case, it was from a Shuffle Time Forneus + a Shuffle Time Yomotsu Shikome + our Berith). With Emperor at a minimum of Rank 3, he'll gain enough EXP to hit level 17 or higher. Level 17's a good one fortunately, since that gives him Mazio outright.
Plus he starts with Media by default, so it's kinda hard to go wrong with this guy in a sense.
We'll also make a Pyro Jack (Unicorn + Zouchouten) to use that Fusion Skill, and we also get something quite nice.
This Persona seems to be holding something within itself. Things such as this occur every now and then. Go ahead and raise this Persona.
A fairly decent number of Persona can have this happen, even.
Sometimes when you fuse a new one, this scene'll play out and we'll get a little Heart symbol on the stat page. Once Pyro Jack learns his final skill, which here is Agilao at level 19 for fun reference, he'll give us a piece of equipment we can't get anywhere else at all... for a long, LONG time when it has an alternative source. Which most don't, even!
...And yes, you can register him in the compendium with a absurdly low EXP value to that level and then just buy him back to get multiple copies ad infinitum. This sounds like a good way to make money, but... we'll see. We'll see! I'm not banking on it though.
In terms of heart items that are obtainable right now, aside from Pyro Jack (level 14) giving us an accessory that lets you run away easier we have:
Jack Frost (base level 8; final skill obtained at level 13) letting you nullify the Frozen status effect;
Unicorn (base 11; final skill 15) making you immune to Poison;
Fortuna (base 17; final skill 22) making you immune to Rage.
The next one is available when we hit level 20 and that one is unironically very good and I'll definitely grab a copy or two of. Probably off-screen though.
Anyway, Oberon!
Did you know that a Persona is another side of you? Just like you, it will grow and change. However, the rate at which it grows depends more on your Social Links than on fighting. I suggest you make many friends and deepen the bonds you've established. Please accept your reward.
Luck +1; Agility +2. Well, at least we get 3 of 'em?
Next in the chain is fairly easy but, uh, we can't do it for a long, long time. Again. Vetala's base level is 24 so this'll sit here for quite a while!
You know what won't though? Shadows.
Emperor Golden Beetle x3 (Portable) Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone
This is a new one. Normally these fixed fights don't give anyone the advantage for obvious reasons, but here the Gold Beetles always get the first turn...
They always use it the same way too. They just all cast Tarukaja on themselves. It's this instead of an Auto-Tarukaja passive for what I can only presume is Atlus being fair. See outside of Portable, you have no way of knowing if an enemy is buffed or debuffed just by checking it. The little symbols that appear when targetting something didn't exist until Persona 4.
Since I already know their elemental resistances, let's just set the girls to focus on healing. The beetles can hit pretty hard with that Tarukaja in place and all.
Sure, we could remove it but eh.
Mitsuru's contributions to this fight are... basically non-existant, honestly. Gold Beetles are immune to Ice and resist Physicals. Like all Physicals. Slash, Strike AND Pierce are all resisted because why not.
They're also immune to Charm. Mitsuru ain't helping without being a healer in this one.
They're neutral to Wind, so Yukari can at least contribute that way. It's just a shame that these guys hit VERY hard so we need both on healing duty to keep up with that.
Like, this is a basic attack albeit one with Tarukaja in play. Akihiko can Tarunda them to drop is to like ~40 damage or so but he has a better use.
Namely electrocuting these things, since they're weak to Electricity.
...Wait that did 11 damage. What. Yukari did quadruple that on a Neutra-- oh they have 22 Endurance. Okay that's ridiulous.
Except that's not all. They're weak to Elec, sure, but they are also HIGHLY resistant to it. They're neutral to Fire/Wind and take sensible damage from those.
This sounds really familiar for some reason...
AOAs hit them very hard, at least, since they pool everyone's Strength and weapons together to deal Almighty damage and all. Mercifully, these things also only have 250HP (and 250SP which will never, ever, EVER come close to dropping below 200 never mind running out).
Skill-wise, our shiny crowned friends really like 2/3rds of the Physical elements.
Torrent Shot is the best light Pierce skill in terms of raw damage. It's 2 or 3 hits on a single target, each of which has a base power of 50. So, it's functionally a base power 100 skill on a bad day.
...For reference, Holy Arrow is the second strongest light tier Pierce skill. Yes, really.
This is Torrent Shot without Tarukaja.
Remember how Kill Rush is very powerful? This is it with Tarukaja. A single hit of this is a little more potent than a 2 hit Torrent Shot but only just.
They use their SP exclusively on buffs. Mercifully they only have single-target stuff and don't have Rakukaja.
But, honestly? They never get a turn outside of the ambush.
Except in Portable, where they got their HP doubled and that's basically it. Weird.
tartarus_0d02
Aside from the shells, which are just money in item form, our reward here is a pair of Chewing Souls. Nice SP recovery for if we really need it.
We could carry on further up from here, but we'll take a bit of a break from Tartarus for now, I think, and come back later.